On the Impact of Storms

(A Toastmaster Basic Speech)

Ladies and Gentlemen:

        Have you ever wondered what a storm is?  …. Or whatever it is that it could do to you?  I ask you because I did once wonder.   And I got answers.    So tonight,   I’d like to share these answers with you. . .   – if only for a little bit of inspiration.

        But first the question: what really is a storm?    Well, a  storm,  by definition,  would be an atmospheric disturbance.  This is  manifested in strong winds accompanied by rain or other precipitation- and often by thunder and lightning.   This was the kind of storm I used to know when then I lived in the Philippines,  a country situated in the Pacific.   I remember how only two weather conditions alternated: the so-called hot and rainy seasons.   And it was  during the rainy season when we would be visited by some  six to eight storms on the average  -one after the other. 

        But it was interesting  how  I enjoyed these storms as I sat by the window.   I watched the rain furiously  race down to meet the ground.   And as it did,  I took pleasure in the way  the  howling,  violent winds  would   take the rains for a ride !  So it was a beautiful sight to watch how synchronized  the tree branches swayed in the same direction as the winds and the  rains went.   Temperatures necessarily went down too but leave it to more of atmospheric phenomena to complement it with thunder and lightning.    Indeed,    I also loved to watch the powerful burst of fire among the dark,  thick clouds as I anticipated the explosive rumble of thunder that followed.   Yes,  it was all there.   The works,   as they say.

        Now the other  storm experience I had  was  in  Germany,  specifically in Cologne,  –  and it was something different to  remember.   As you know,  the  European countries  have the same 4 seasons that the United States have -  spring, summer, autumn and winter.  But well, this was a storm, alright,  but quite peculiarly  bizarre to me.    Because that one  summer morning I woke up and looked up to a dark  sky, I was simply captivated by all that raging whirling and swirling of the heavy and massive clouds above.  What caught my wonder was why there was no rain at all... not one drop.   Really,  I was  amazed by  how the  winds simply raked the skies into the likes of a misguided maelstrom .... with streaks of lightning, with  occasional thunder  blasts, yes, - but there was no rain!   There was just the gloom and the darkness and just  the clouds in  directionless  but frenzied movement.   And it  certainly was  a storm!   But a frighteningly beautiful strange one!

        My dear friends,   I  now  find  myself in the east coast of the United States,   and from my window, I have  watched soft  snow gently fall in  seemingly musical cadence.   But I have also watched  a blizzard manifest itself  in such a way as to have dumped  something like a good 18 to 24 inches of snow in our area.    A third type of storm.  This particular snow storm came  with  powerful gusts of freezing wind  that created snowdrifts seemingly high  as mountains and which lasted for weeks and weeks.    Of those mountains of snow,  - I could run  into them ,  fall,    get buried and get lost to humanity.   And yes, from my window as I watched   this total whiteness envelope my part of the  world,  I also simultaneously sensed the  aftermath of a quiet but sinister violence…. lovely in its cold and disquieting malevolence … enchanting as the snow wickedly,  if you’ll pardon the expression,  wickedly turn to ice.   And you know the implications of this.

        Thus,   I’d had rain storms,  cloud storms,  snow storms…  but whichever way it can be,   my dear friends,  I  liken a storm to whatever it is that blocks the goals that  I set for myself.   As you know, obstacles could be people……. they could be situations, they could be choices to make.    So come in whatever form they may,   I have learned to allow myself to  identity them  as   sinister and quietly violent stuff like snow,  why not.    Problems are like that.   Sometimes they could also come as physically   strange and threatening like dark clouds -   but I don’t die if I  go scared a little bit.    But   in order to make a better job of solving my  problems,  I  make myself enjoy them  like I do rain.  Problems won’t go away if I’m annoyed by them,   so  I sway with the winds,  so to speak.     And  if I feel and think positive,  problem-solving becomes easy.

       So now,  fellow Toastmasters,   are you beset with storms in your speech-making goals?  Well then,   I   suggest you choose one or all of these:   Rain storms?  Cloud storms?  Snow storms?

Mister Toastmaster……